


Let's Try This Again

by Dark_Huntress_Moony



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slow Build, everyone is human
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-22 07:23:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3720133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Huntress_Moony/pseuds/Dark_Huntress_Moony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard, Kaidan, and Ashley all leave the police force to start their own restaurant, something to give them a new start in life. Shepard and Kaidan had started to explore their feelings for each other when tragedy struck their new restaurant and they lost their partner Ashley and nearly lost a few more members of their little family. After a falling out Shepard is left to pick up the pieces, determined to see the restaurant succeed, for Ashley. But when a rival steals the head chef a week before Normandy Reborn opens, an old face makes an appearance that leaves Shepard's head reeling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first Mass Effect AU, everyone is going to make some sort of appearance but really the only people who matter is everyone who has stepped foot on the Normandy in the game, so all crew members will make some kind of appearance. Now I hope you all enjoy and I don't want to give to much away so let's just jump right into it, how's that sound? Good? Alright let's go!

Prologue

 

_Smoke filled the room, people screaming and even one man yelling for people to get out. He felt someone grab his arm, warm brown eyes met his. “We need to get out of here! the whole fucking kitchens on fire!”_

_“Wrex and Garrus are back there!” He yelled back. “You make sure Joker is out.” He ran through the door. “Wrex! Garrus! Fuckin answer me!”_

_“Garrus is down!” A rough voice yelled back. The sound of breaking tiles and popping appliances made him slow down...then the world seemed to spin in a swirl of smoke and sound._

 

Leo Shepard jolted awake in a mild panic and gripped the sheets of his bed tightly in his hands. He took a deep breath as he counted to 10 in his head. He slowly pulled himself up and looked down at himself. Scars littered his chest and arms and he knew if he looked in the mirror he would see them across his face. He sighed as he pulled himself out of bed and dressed quickly but efficiently, movements born from living in a military family. He slid into his old beat up pickup truck and drove to Normandy Reborn. He smiled a little at the front of the restaurant as he parked and looked up. The sign glittered in the mid morning sun, standing proud against the clear blue sky. He smiled as he moved to the side door and unlocked the door, letting himself into the restaurant. He heard chatter coming from the dining room and walked down the short hall from the kitchen to see his entire staff sitting at the longest table that was littered with food. “What the hell is this?” He asked looking around.

 

“Shepard! Bout time you joined us.” Tali called, her accented voice light and happy as she walked out from behind him with some plates.

 

“Still doesn't answer my question. Why’s everyone here? The restaurant doesn't open till next week.” He was stunned to see his whole staff smiling and waiting for him.

 

“Exactly. We need to test out the food.” Garrus said, his lips curled into a lopsided grin.

 

Shepard looked at his oldest friend in the room. Garrus stood about as tall as him, his short black hair was swept back from his face as if he ran his fingers through it many times, his blue eyes sharp as he watched Shepard. Then Shepard's eyes traveled to the side of his face where the burn scar was and he winced. "You sure you're good to come back so soon?"

 

Garrus rolled his eyes. "My face is fine, besides it'll give you a chance to get some action since we know all the ladies went after me." He chuckled. "But seriously does it look that bad?"

 

"Hell Garrus you were always ugly, slap some of that strange warpaint you like to use on and you'll never tell the difference." Shepard smirked.

 

Garrus laughed along with the rest of the staff and groaned cupping his cheek. "Shit don't make me laugh, my face is barely holding together as it is."

 

Shepard smiled and gave the man a pat on his shoulder as he looked at everyone else. His brow furrowed as he noticed someone missing. "Wheres Rupert?" He asked.

 

Jacob sighed as he scratched the back of his neck and held out a letter. "He handed me this when I got here Shep."

 

The other man took the letter and read it over. "He quit....what in the actual fuck?" Shepard growled as he crumpled the letter up. He glared out the window where his rival restaurant sat across the street. "That fucking dickbag. He stole our head chef a week before we opened."

 

Liara coughed into her hand and waved at him to get his attention. He looked over at her and waited. "I called Kaidan." She stated bluntly, her voice was soft but there was am edge to it.

 

"Liara...."

 

"He's coming in today." She looked down at the gold watch on her wrist. "Actually he should be walking in...right...about...now." the woman looked much to pleased with herself as she sat back in her chair, adjusting the sleeves on her blouse.

 

The bell above the door sounded and everyone turned to see a man standing in the door. Time seemed to stop for Shepard as he felt his heart thundering in his ears. The man walked closer, his hands shoved into the pockets of his old police jacket. "Hey Shepard..."


	2. chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kaidans voice sounded in the now silent dinning room as the two men looked at each other. Shepard swallowed, hopping to clear his suddenly dry throat. "Kaidan...." he wanted to kick himself for how small his voice sounded. He felt a hand on his arm and looked over to see Liara motioning them to Shepards' office.

"Maybe you two should go and talk."

"Yeah...we should." He said leading the way to his office, Kaidan following behind him.

Kasumi let out a low whistle, once they were out of ear-shot. "So thats Kaidan Alenko."

Samara nodded as Liara sat down. "It would seem so." She mused, herself and Kasumi new additions to the restaurant.

"Well There weren't any punches thrown so I guess its a good thing." Wrex grunted as he snagged a roll.

"So whats the story there?"Jack asked as she tipped her beer back.

Liara leaned forward, her hands folded in front of her. "Leo and Kaidan were part of the police force about 20 or so years ago. They were partners from the moment they stepped out of the academy. After they retired Leo, Kaidan and their other friend Ashley opened up the first Normandy." She sighed and ran her fingers through her short cropped black hair.

Garrus sighed as he took his own seat next to Tali, his arm draped over her shoulders. "Things were good when the first restaurant opened up. Shepard watched over the bar/greeting area, acting as the face of the restaurant and taking care of the media, Kaidan ran the kitchen making sure we had everything we needed, and Ashley worked the floor."

Joker huffed a laugh. "They were crazy enough to hire a cripple." He laughed again at the looks from some of the new additions to the crew. "Hey, it was a pain in the ass to find a nice cushy job like I had here. Shepard had a knack for getting the crazies to join him, but some how we made this mismatched group of freaks into a family."

"Were they screwing?" Jack's crude question made everyone look at her. "Oh come on! You can't tell me there weren't sparks flying."

"Well," Zaeed smirked around the unlit cigar in his mouth. "Shepard did look like one of those hopeful strays that Jack pretends not to feed when she goes out back." He laughed outright when said hardass glared at him.

Liara let out a small laugh. "No, but there was something there."

"Because of the fire..." Garrus's jaw tightened and Tali brought her hand up to hold his gently. "Kaidan and Shepards mentor, Anderson, was the one heading the investigation. He told us that it was arson and that just...tore them apart."

Tali nodded. "Losing Ashley was like losing a limb. Kaidan was the brain of the restaurant always knowing how to get something to work correctly, Shepard was the spine never backing down and always making sure we had everything we needed, and Ashley..."

"She was the soul." Liara said softly.

"Right, she was the one who held us all together. She would gather everyone together to read a poem and say a prayer before dinner service."

"A prayer?" Thane asked, he was brought on to replace Ashely and was interested in learning how she ran her shifts so that he could try to do the same.

"Nothing overly religious. While she worshiped every Sunday her prayers here were simply that we would have a good night and everything would go as planned." Tali said, "I'm going to miss the poems."

"I could continue her traditions, if it will help with morale." Thane offered.

Tali smiled at him and opened her mouth to say something when a loud crash from the office caught their attention. "Oh no..."

"By the Goddess!" Liara jumped up from her chair and, with Wrex hot on her heels, ran to the office.

~~::~~:::~~::~~:::~~::~~:::~~::~~:::~~

Shepard took a deep breath as he let Kaidan into his office ahead of him, he followed after him and closed the door. He hadn't seen the other man since Ashley's funeral almost 6 months ago and Shepard would be damned if he wasnt a little weak in the knees. He watched as Kaidan was looking at all the pictures that lined the shelves in Shepard's office. Some were of them and old friends and regulars, some of the workers, one of Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan with Shepard's mom at the grand opening. He watched as Kaidan picked up a picture, one of himself, Shepard, and Ashley where Ashley was holding the camera and her face was squished between Shepard and Kaidan's and they were all laughing and smiling. "Kaidan I-"

"Leo-"

They both started and paused looking at each other. Shepard made a motion for Kaidan to continue.

"Leo...I'm sorry for what I said at Ash's funeral. It wasn't your fault." He said softly, his dark colored eyes held all the regret he felt.

"You were more right than you know." Shepard said softly. "If I had shot the bastard-"

Kaidan took a step forward and his hand came up to grip Shepard's bicep. "Leo...Ash's death is on Saren, not you." Kaidan looked at the other, taking his time to really look at him. He was still as handsome as ever, his dirty blonde hair was a little longer than the last time he saw the other man, brushing along his jawline and swept back. He had a bit of scruff along his jaw and there was a tired look in his silvery blue eyes. Before Kaidan could comprehend what he was doing his hand came up to cup Shepard's jaw and he brushed his thumb along the nasty scar that ran across his lips. He stopped what he was doing and his eyes went wide and they both froze.

Shepard felt his breath catch in his chest and he leaned into Kaidan's touch. Before Ashley's death they had started getting close, occasionally Shepard would catch Kaidan when the other man was on his way back to the bar and snag several kisses through out the night. It never had the chance to go further than that before the fire started and broke everything between them into such tiny pieces that Shepard wasn't sure if they would be able to recover from it. But the way Kaidan was touching him...it made his heart speed up, it gave him a little hope that maybe things weren't as broken as he thought they were.

"You aren't sleeping." Kaidan said softly.

"Too much to do." Shepard tried to deflect the concern. He pulled away from Kaidan and moved over to his desk. "So...you want to come back, take over head chef again?"

Kaidan blinked at how quickly the feeling of the room shifted and he hated it. He growled as he stalked over and slammed his hand down on the desk. "Don't you do that to me Leo. Don't fucking turn your back on me."

Silvery blue eyes narrowed as they met angry brown. "You wanna talk about turning your back on someone, how about what you did to me. Ashley was my friend too Kaidan."

"You were so busy trying to fall into bed with that jack ass who wanted to buy our burnt husk of a restaurant. What was I supposed to think?"

"You think that....because..." Shepard growled as he glared at the other. "I told you Tim wanted to buy but I wasn't selling. You are the one that ran!" He snapped. "If we are going to play this game Kaidan then you can just get the fuck out." He growled as he moved to walk past Kaidan to open the door.

Kaidan snarled as he gripped Shepard's arm only to have his hold broken and his back slammed into the desk, a few things falling to the floor with a crash. He had forgotten that Shepard was the better of the two of them at anything involving hand to hand fighting. He looked up to see Shepard's eyes on him and he felt his breath catch in his chest. Shepard was equally in the thrall of the beautiful brown eyes before him and before he could think he was bending down to capture Kaidan's soft lips with his own. He groaned softly in his throat as his eyes slid closed and he felt Kaidan give himself over to the kiss, his partner was more than willing. Before the kiss could progress any further the door slammed open causing both men to jolt and jump away from each other, or rather Shepard to jump away from Kaidan and Kaidan to try to slide off the desk.

"Oh my!" Liara's hand came up to her mouth and a blush stained her dusky colored skin.

"Well damn Shepard, I didn't think you worked that fast! He hasn't even stepped into the kitchen yet!" Jack yelled, making both men blush.

"Out! Everyone out!" Shepard yelled as he moved to the door pushing everyone back as they laughed and made cat calls at them. He slammed the door shut and laid his forehead against the thick wood. "Well that was fucking mortifying." He muttered.

"Which part Leo? The kiss or the fact we got caught?" Kaidan asked, he twisted his hands in front of him, worried that he had ruined any chance he had at being in the Normandy again.

"I could never regret kissing you Kaidan...ever....but this...was not what I had planned for the next time I ever saw you. Fuck I had rehearsed a million things I was going to say to you before I even thought about kissing you again."

"You thought about kissing me again?" Kaidan was surprised.

Shepard let out a laugh and turned to look at him. "Of course I did...shit you were the star in more than a few fantasies...but I had lost all hope of anything after the funeral. Now that you are here...wanting a job....fuck I can't say no to you." He walked over to the small wardrobe he had put in his office for quick changes of suit jackets and what not and grabbed something before tossing it to Kaidan.

Kaidan looked down to see his old chef's jacket in his hands. The dark blue jacket was cleaned and his name still on the front along with the symbol of the Normandy. He ran his fingers over the silvery thread and looked at Shepard. "Leo...you kept it?"

Shepard nodded. "I always held out the hope that you would come back." He said softly shoving his hands into his pocket. "So will you? Come back I mean...to me....to Normandy?" Silvery blue eyes were open and hopeful and Kaidan found himself sinking back to where he had started all those years ago.

"Yeah...yeah I want to come back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I may or may not have mis-tagged this story as slow build....i dunno that just called for a kiss I couldnt help it. Hope you enjoyed, until next time my freaky little darlings!

**Author's Note:**

> Alright and there's the start, I hope everyone is ready to enjoy the ride because I'm sure as hell enjoying writing it. Now I was having issues trying to place characters in a human look...I think I may have done alright but we shall see. Leave me some feed back and the first chapter should be done sometime soon.


End file.
